Harvest of Chivalry/Decadence/9th Harvest - Test of Might
Test of Might is the ninth episode of the Harvest of Chivalry's first season Decadence. Storyline It was a clear afternoon during summer break. Tyreas was seen in the middle of the forest just nearby Asternitz Village. He yawned upon leaning on a blue tree standing in the middle of the clearing. "Boring as hell, you people are.." It seemed he was just talking to the air... "..... Yeah yeah, I know I'm not sane; my dreams are indications of that." "... Huh?" mouthed a familiar voice from behind. He glanced behind him. "I'm not surprised.." He said in a deadpan expression. "... Says you," said the voice from a blue-haired guy. It was Frisch, apparently. "You walk softly, but that only makes you easier to hear." "... I don't need to do such a thing. Did I disturb you?" "Not really," Tyreas nonchalantly replied. "You annoy me greatly every day I see ya." "Huh." Frisch was deadpan. It seemed he did not really care about it. "Yes," Tyreas affirmed. "You're that much of a pain, like your brother and the c*nt brigade." "... I admire your bluntness," Frisch complimented. "... But isn't it too far to speak such before me?" "Too far? I'd say it to their faces so not really." "... Hm. If you are that persistent, you should be ignored then..." Frisch said as he began walking away. "You've said that before yet you can't seem to keep it up for long, now why is that?" Frisch didn't answer as he was about to disappear from plain sight. Tyreas smiled. "One less problem to deal with..." He waited for Frisch to disappear before summoning his weapon and practicing with his strange power more, trying to develop ways to counter other abilities. Like fire, or wind, or electricity. Frisch did disappear in plain sight at last. However, he was standing by the shade of a blue tree several meters away. The shade allowed him to be unseen from afar. He was watching Tyreas as the former took respite under the tree. The terrain was being torn apart by an onslaught of earthen golems just being summoned so he could fight. "... Huh." Frisch was intently viewing the skirmish. His power of insight was at work as he observed how he battles... There didn't seem to be a method to his fighting, just him keeping a calm detachment from it because he was fighting puppets. It took two hours before he dispelled them all. "Boring..." Tyreas spoke to himself. "Not as fun as real life." A sound of something that struck the ground with a stab was heard. "......" He stared at the knife. "Now what is this? I knew you couldn't ignore me.." It was a knife by his foot. A stylish knife. Frisch could be seen from a short distance. "... Challenge." "Yeah.. Sure. You were probably watching me now were you.~" The knife was pulled out of the ground as if it was magnetized to Frisch. He grabbed the handle with his left hand. "... Irrelevant." Frisch tilted the knife as it was shifted to astral mode, causing the knife to take on a strange form with cyan lines etched on the blade. "Hmmm.." Tyreas shifted his axe to astral mode. The axhead was etched with the same cyan lines on it. It seemed they were about to have a duel. Not to the death, of course. That was the purpose of the astral mode- to keep the combatants from receiving physical damage. Instead, from every hit, they lose stamina until they pass out... "Let's get this over with." "He has no specific combat style, making him quite the unpredictable brute in close quarters. I have to be more fluid..." Frisch revealed his other knife, which was of course in astral mode as well, from his right hand. He held both hands on his weapon, adjusting his stance to be rugged. Frisch just stood there with his knives on the side. His eyes were focused on searching for weak points, if any. There were a few, but given who he's sparring against those could be lured to get him to attack the way he wants him to. Regardless, Frisch had the advantage of being able to have an idea of his attack patterns. The field was quiet as the two were still standing. Frisch did not flinch... He shifted his footing, as a pillar of wary erupted underneath his left foot to knock him off balance. Frisch began to... walk towards his opponent?! How it must be casual for him to just do that! He swung his weapon at Frisch towards the right to see what he would do. Seeing that poleax he carried is quite a heavy weapon, Frisch would either step back once from a side swing instead of blocking it. Regardless, he would leave his left knife spinning away from him as he moved. The knife was traveling towards the trajectory of Tyreas' body. However, it is somewhat negated considering Tyreas is strong enough to lift and swing the poleax with one hand without too much trouble. However, he twirled it after letting go with his left hand to catch the knife by the handle between two fingers before tossing it back at Frisch. He wasn't showing off, in fact only doing the bare minimum in his movements. There he did it. Within the interval of a second, he caught his left knife with his respective hand and used it to protect his left side by a reverse grip in a horizontal position. In conjunction, he swiftly sent a right forehand swing at Tyreas, also using the air around him to boost his speed. Despite this, the uneven terrain slightly slowed Frisch down as Tyreas slid back, shaking the earth using his Control of Earth using up a minuscule portion of his Prismana to disrupt Frisch's balance so he could deliver a full swing against his left side as a knife was an ill-suited weapon to defend against a poleaxe. "Lies and deception is my game, I got rich off of most of your friends with their big money~..." he chuckled as he went along. However, at that short an interval, Tyreas barely made the swing as Frisch was using the air around him to lighten the load on his feet as he lifted them. He tossed his left knife again perpendicular to the direction of the swing and looked back as he used his left foot to pivot towards Tyreas and swing with his right knife in a right forehand manner. How he easily achieved this was because he had partially exchanged the process of his general hearing to sensing the direction of moving objects through their movement in the air. Tyreas grumbled at this, adjusting his footing to compensate for the speed difference before he spun the weapon clockwise and used the shaft of the weapon to block both knives while creating pillars of rock to surround them ever so often. "'' I should not involve himself in a wrestle of raw strength as he would take advantage of it, considering that he was able to lift that heavy weapon albeit his abnormally slim build," Frisch thought. "''His abilties are perplexing indeed--''" Tyreas suddenly pushed forward upon the shaft of his poleax getting struck with the intent of knocking Frisch off his feet. "... Tch!" Frisch grunted as he let go of his right knife in the process. He then flipped back, using the air to assist him as he landed on the ground with a prolonged impact time. While he did such, his knives flew around Tyreas and harassed him, cutting into him a few times before the latter conjured walls to entrap them. Though when Frisch landed, he felt the ground getting softer as he began to sink slowly... "... What the...?!" Frisch reacted in his mindscape as he glanced at his feet. It was mud! Tyreas must have liquefied the soil with his Control of Earth before Frisch noticed it... Did it happen during or before the fight? No time to waste as the mud was accumulating towards his position! Frisch fueled his feet with wind converted from a fair portion of his Prismana, at a rate faster than sinking to jump off of the entrapment at a forward direction. Though the jump height was significantly reduced, it had enough force to blast off the mud towards surrounding objects. It took a few seconds to achieve, giving Tyreas more time to finish what he was planning... Simply put a sort of cage with a roof made of solid rock above their heads to limit his mobility. When Frisch landed, he prolonged his impact time to avoid having the mud make him sink again as he spurted around Tyreas, utilizing the same concept he used before in order to maintain his mobility. He looked at the shadow below him, reading that there was a cage around them. "''He is using earth constructs to take geographical advantage. Then I must divert him to use his first stratum more often... To exhaust him of mana." Tyreas tossed his poleaxe up into the air, watching as it spun and spun, gathering up loose debris and dirt to form a solid roof held together by the weapon as the core. The cage was small, yet perfect for someone like Tyreas as it allowed no long range maneuvering and was relatively small enough so duking it out with fists was heavily encouraged. "You may be nimble, but this should suit my needs... hand to hand." "..." Frisch lifted his feet off the ground using the air around him to reenact a limited form of flight as he moved around. He still had something off his sleeve... Where were his knives? "I know you can resummon your weapon, so go ahead," Tyreas mocked. "Please do, I won't need to use mine for this." He assumed a mixed martial arts stance, surprisingly emphasizing speed over force. This actually worked for him as he wasn't some lumbering juggernaut. Frisch was still quiet... He didn't need to utilize color acuity for this since the earth had dull colors so he partially exchanged them for motion perception. At that rate, his perception was greatly enhanced. How is this even possible? He began to lift off his feet as he ran across the cage bars, since they were not mud but solid rock. Using his insight while moving, he observed Tyreas in his stance. On the fifth one, a sharp spike was shot up in an attempt of maiming Frisch's foot. "Ah ah ah, none of that, I'm forcing you to fight on my terms. None of that running around, boyo..." Tyreas spoke. However, as it was near his feet, his was suddenly smartcast, severing the spike as its cage bar crumbled into stones. He clenched his fist, resummoning one of his knives as he flung it towards Tyreas after landing on the ground. The latter sidestepped, creating another pillar to shoot up towards his chin while sprinting towards Frisch. Unfortunately, it would be sliced halfway away from him as his was smartcast again. He resummoned his second knife on his right hand, charging at Tyreas while widening his left hand as a sphere of wind was being formed around his left palm. Meanwhile, the left knife was out there somewhere... Within his opponent's blind spot. As these nimble footfalls drew nearer and nearer, the battle has become more decisive! Who will win between the swift Frisch and the cunning Tyreas? "Come on ya f*cking pansy @$$ c*nt..! Let's get this game f*cking started..!" He was grinning slightly with a bloodthirsty glint in his eyes as they sparred. Frisch kept his mouth shut regardless... "Our attacks will decide the outcome of this spar... Your speech means nothing to me!" Tyreas focused, using the earth cage in an attempt to predict the nimble Frisch's moves, sending a quick jab towards the left side of his face that was a feint for an elbow across the nose. Frisch moved his body down to the right side and quickly thrust the wind sphere towards the opposite of Tyreas' attack trajectory, allowing him to see through any weak points in his opponent's position from his left side. Tyreas' elbow met the sphere head-on, dealing a great amount of concussive damage to his joint which would easily maim him. "Kgh... Oh please, an arm is nothing...!" However, he was staying close, ignoring the pain in his left elbow for a solid punch to the chin... Which was a bad move at first impression because he would be throwing far lesser force as he was maimed. But why is he doing it? Using existing earth, he summoned an earth pillar in conjunction with his fist to disrupt any wind and force Frisch throws at him to prioritize the cage of earth working against him by creating pillars aimed for him over Tyreas. He's essentially delivering a jab towards Frisch with a rock-covered hand, mainly for the rock to absorb any protective spell he might employ. Frisch used the air behind his opponent to make him lose balance when he would push his body too much and sidestepped to the right as he used his right knife to graze across Tyreas' left waist. The latter actually halted the punch a set distance while the actual earth covering ejected at close range with the force of a shotgun blast which was out of desperation, miserably missing in the process. However, it was not his main plan as it was an attempt to distract Frisch. Apparently the blast had been blown past him-- which was not a cause for concern. "Bleed.." Tyreas suddenly shifted his footing for a low sweep attempt... ... which, sadly, would not reach him in time, as Frisch-- ... " ." Upon reaching Tyreas' left side, Frisch scrambled through and grazed across his side with full force as he ran straight through him. At the same time, the pillars aimed at him were launched at high speeds but they were diced by the left Dual Ceresta. Regardless, the slice across his side would have greatly weakened him to temporarily render him unfit for battle, stopping the spike debris from lunging directly toward Frisch. The match has been decided. Frisch won the victory this time! Tyreas fell on his knees as a crackling sound was slowly growing in volume. The cage began to crumble into small debris which would coat the combatants with thick dust... until Frisch took notice of this and exuded a gale which sent the dust afar. The Schreckliche Fassade fell toward them with its axhead pointing down... until it quickly dissipated into iridescent shards of Prismana. The weapon of Frisch's opponent served as magical confetti to his victory... To Tyreas, it is unsure if it was intentional or not. "Keh.. Funny.." He grumbled, standing up and fixing his arm with a sickening crack. "Tch." Frisch straightened up and looked at Tyreas. "... You are a fitting opponent. You might not even be troubled against my brother." His knives dissipated back into a cyan mist. "Funny..." Tyreas muttered. "... How so?" Frisch asked. "Ahh, nothing you'd truly understand.. After all, you cling to the notion of friends.. I don't." "... Like you, I had no friends until I met Sylvee." Frisch turned his back. "... You're still young... You will understand later on." "... I'm older than you are," Tyreas arrogantly retorted. Frisch nonchalantly turned to Tyreas. "... How old are you?" "16..?" Tyreas was suddenly struck with realization. "... Sh*t, are you a senior?" "... You can say that." "Wait, yeah... F*ck, you're older." "... Says my underclassman." "... None of that." Frisch cracked a smile. "... Honestly, you are not bad. You have more to learn." He looked at the sunset. "... I know you have learned something after this spar." "Yeah.. Though.. One last lesson.. Remember that cage?" Frisch nodded. "Two ways that would've worked.. One, I desperate myself from you and slowly squeeze you until you give. Or two, was fight." "... But that ended up badly on your part." "Or did it?" "... Yes." "Perspective, I had fun," Tyreas said. "So it went well." Frisch let out a deadpan expression. "... What." "Frisch!" a voice was heard from a distance. Frisch turned to its direction. Apparently, it was Sylvea. "... Sylvee." She walked to him and noticed Tyreas. "Tyreas... Nice meeting you here as well." "....." He didn't feel like socializing so he walked off from them. "Tyreas?" Sylvea called out softly when he walked away, wondering what passed over him. "I despise you, Asterne.. I really do." Tyreas barely said above a whisper. "Nothing will change that." Sylvea looked at him walk away and glanced at Frisch. "What is up, Frisch?" "... We had a spar. I defeated him." "Wow... As expected from you, Frisch." Frisch sighed. "... We were equals... Until my attack decided the battle." She giggled in response. Tyreas could surprisingly hear them, and that only fueled his hatred. "... I had to give him a lesson," Frisch spoke in a serious tone. "... He was not bad, though." Sylvea nodded. "Yes... I think he has something good in him but it is just that he might have experienced things in a bad way possible. I can't blame him for being rude sometimes..." "... Agreed." Frisch crossed his arms. "... He is still young, after all." Tyreas was probably out of earshot, but he couldn't hold in the resentment he had for Frisch.